From the Library

On my previous return from far away, N took me to the Hyde Hall RHS gardens in Essex and, because it was such a warm and sunny day and we enjoyed ourselves so much (and the jetlag cure seemed to be so successful), we signed up for membership on the spot. Determined to extend the benefit, we toddled off to Wisley today, narrowly avoiding a satnav disaster along the way, but making it into an adventure instead. And, once again, it was glorious. I can see why Mum loved it so much, and I only wish I'd had the chance to enjoy it with her. We had a great visit, mostly contemplating what we will be doing with the couple of Norfolk acres we don't have yet. They are going to be superb. They already are in our imaginations! Saturday in the sunshine was topped off with barbecue organised by J whilst we were out. So, no time for book shopping, so I can but reflect on the charity finds from the week just finished, in amongst which we have a first of V2 to help the Harris firsts collection a...

I allowed myself to get a bit carried away last weekend and put in a couple of chunky online orders. One was from Harper Collins, but as they had a message on their site about a warehouse move or some such, I shouldn't expect anything from them for a couple of weeks. In any case, it was, in part, a pre-order for July. However, the other one was from Books2door and I finally caved in and bought the Dark Tower box set that I've been wanting for rather a long time. That turned out to be the thin end of the wedge as, once I'd noticed that they had all eight Slow Horses books for just over £20 which simply couldn't be refused, I was properly up and running. Then, into my stride, I had to get the Arthur Ransome set, just because they are things of beauty, because I will make great plans to work my way through them one day, because I have very happy memories of adoring Swallowdale (not S&A) as a child and, well, I only have to look at them to be reminded of Dad. Finally, a...

Ian Fleming publications released the first chapter of the forthcoming Felix Leiter book on Tuesday this week. They could have waited for a day and released it on Fleming's (117th) birthday, but never mind. Their post includes both the first chapter and the author, Raymond Benson, reading it. I am reminded of this post from 2023 when I was pleased to report on a successful eBay purchase from Mr Benson. Last year, I was able to repeat the trick by purchasing, directly from the author, another set, this time of the US first edition signed paperbacks of his Bond works. As for The Hook and the Eye, I don't think I'm going to sign up for the digital serialisation, but will look forward to the hard copy later this year.

On my continuing catch-up quest, we had a sunny day out at Leeds Castle in the middle of April, taking the opportunity to meet up with friends whilst we were there, enjoying a stroll in the gardens, lunch and the first outdoor ice-cream of the season. I was encouraged that this would be a particularly pleasant outing with talk of a recently opened second-hand bookstore in the grounds, and mighty fine it was too. It may have been a slight mistake to go there first, as I spent the rest of our visit lugging round (with kind assistance from others at times) a bag of five hardbacks and a paperback. It could have been a lot more, given that the bill came to £11 and also that they had almost a whole shelf of Kingsley Amis first editions. Somehow I nobly restrained myself to three, making sure, of course, to bag the signed one along the way.

London with J was just over two weeks ago, so just over a week ago was London with N, and off to the Saatchi Galley for Firsts London, with thanks to Jon for a couple of exhibitor tickets enabling us to breeze in like we were VIPs. Lots of alarmingly expensive books and, for the second mention in a row, I think that Peter H won the prize for the most expensive book spotted at a cool £1 million (some old Shakespeare blah blah). The most appealing thing as far as I was concerned was a copy of 'From Russia' on the Lucius Books stand, which I got to hold in my grubby hands for a few fleeting moments. Here it is (who knows how long that link is going to work) on their website and, as they say in their description, it certainly is " superb example in entirely original condition, scarce thus ". In discussion, they even claimed to have acquired it from the 'original owner' which, had I stopped to think about it, did warrant a little gentle probing for a book that was ...

Two weeks ago, J and I went on a book shopping expedition to London, a he'd kindly reminded me that he still owed me for a birthday (or possibly Christmas) present. As well as having a good rummage in the bookshops, we also had a look at the newly opened 'Fanatics' store near Piccadilly, as well as having lunch at the (also recently opened) Black Tap close by. Connoisseurs that we are, we determined that it wasn't a patch on the Vegas outlet as, frankly, the burgers would be classified as sliders there. Mind you, we still couldn't finish our shared Oreo milkshake dessert! Also, disappointing not to have the 80s soundtrack that was playing previously. Back to the books. We had a most enjoyable trip to Peter Harrington's. A very helpful assistant was keen to show us some of the special Bond collection in the locked room within the locked room. Jake was disappointed that I turned down the offer to view the third set of nested rooms. It was all getting a bit much. W...

I was in Asda earlier today. Never a particularly pleasant experience, but the main purpose of the visit was to pick up some remaining parts of a prescription from their in-store pharmacy that they hadn't had in stock from a previous visit. I failed. I managed to perfectly time my visit to coincide with the pharmacist's lunch break. Plus, I couldn't hang around long enough for them to return, as I had to be out in time to go and pick Nan up from her appointment at the osteopath. Still, the silver lining was that I could pop up to their book aisle and see what was what. To my very pleasant surprise they had a couple of copies of 'Never Flinch'. Unexpected as it isn't supposed to be out until Tuesday, and at £11, it was definitely coming home with me, along with the latest, 29th, Reacher book (In Too Deep) to make sure the paperback shelf stays complete. I may have to dive fairly straight into Never Flinch. Enjoy my head start. Interesting to see this interview ...